Create a T-Shirt Mockup Design in Photoshop CC

In this Photoshop tutorial, we’ll cover how to create a t-shirt mockup with the PSD download located in this video description. We’ll very quickly create a mockup with a flat t-shirt, but then we’ll use a photo of a model wearing a tshirt and create a tshirt design mockup with a real person involved. You’ll see how I like to use layers, masks, adjustment layers, and blend modes to get a realistic mockup created very quickly!

Creating the Mask and Displacement Map

Use the Quick Selection tool to drag a selection out over the shirt you want to place the graphics on and use Refine Edge or Select and Mask to tweak the edges of the selection if needed. Add a Gradient Map Adjustment layer above all your layers that have been created and make that gradient a black to white gradient to convert the image to black and white. Go File>Save As and choose where to save this file and name it “displace-map.psd”

Placing the Graphic, Tweaking the Mask, Apply Displacement

Delete the Gradient Map Adjustment layer and go File>Place Embedded and choose the graphic file you want to place on the front of the shirt. Hold down your Alt/Opt key and drag the mask up that you created from the selection of the shirt. Use the Brush tool and grab a soft-edged brush and gently paint around the edges where the graphic may need a little additional masking and blending into the shirt. Also, go Filter>Distort>Displace and set the horizontal and vertical scale to 3 and then hit “OK” to load in the .psd displacement map that we just created.

Tweaking the Colors and Blend the Graphic

Add a Photo Filter Adjustment layer just above the masked shirt layer and hit Cmd/Ctrl + Alt/Opt + G to clip the Adjustment layer to the shirt layer beneath it (check out my screenshot.) Tick off the “Preserve Luminosity” check box and choose a color from the color picker and turn the Density slider up to 100%. The trick is to choose a color that looks good with the underlying shirt. TIP: Sometimes it can be VERY helpful to first desaturate the underlying shirt to a medium gray to have incredible control over the color. You can also create a dodge and burn layer above the graphics we placed earlier to burn in the graphic and you can also add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer just above the graphic layer and use the Cmd/Ctrl + Alt/Opt + G to clip that Adjustment layer to the graphic. Tick on “Colorize” in the Hue/Saturation and if your graphic is white, slide the brightness slider to the left and pump the saturation and tweak the hue to get whatever color you want on the graphic.

To really get the full experience and learn all of what I have to offer in this case, make sure you watch the full video at the top of this post! I also cover how to use a free PSD flat tshirt template and how to mockup graphics on a model wearing a tshirt as well. Hope you enjoy it!

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Nathaniel Dodson: I am a young web designer and commercial photographer specializing in music, business, and athlete portraiture. I am a young and energetic individual who has been working in the design and creative field since I first started dabbling with Photoshop in year 2000.